After the unfortunate box office disappointment of the criminally underrated "Alien: Covenant," 20th Century Studios opted to veer off from director Ridley Scott's trilogy of movies following the adventures of the android xenomorph experimenter David (Michael Fassbender). The studio seemed to view the franchise as one badly in need of a rethink — especially since it's hard to make a cheap "Alien" movie.

At a reported budget of $80 million, Fede Álvarez's "Alien: Romulus" wasn't exactly affordable, but it was cheaper than "Prometheus" and "Covenant," and, most importantly, a straight-ahead horror flick with the kind of stalk-and-seed frights that made the first two movies — "Alien" and "Aliens" — box office smashes. Curiously, the studio's parent company, Disney, initially wanted to take Álvarez's acid-veined thrillride straight to Hulu. But they eventually realized they had an unabashedly mainstream "Alien" installment on their hands, and, $350 million worldwide later, they have a completely rejuvenated franchise.